Construction crews to clear I-395 bridge Nov. 15, open all four lanes to traffic

BANGOR, Maine — Major construction on the Interstate 395 bridge connecting Bangor and Brewer should be completed next week, according to the field engineer on the project.

Crews plan to remove barricades and open all four lanes of the interstate to traffic by Tuesday, Nov. 15, said Mitchell Bois of CPM constructors, the Freeport-based contractors making repairs to the bridge.

“We are on schedule,” Bois said. “We are currently scheduled to be out of the road around the 15th of this month.”

The work was originally slated to end by Oct. 15, but that date was pushed back when workers found minor unexpected repairs that needed to be made.

While barricades will be pulled off the bridge next week, crews will continue to work under and around the bridge until the end of the year.

Bois said all vehicles and construction equipment used in the project will be moved off the bridge and out of the field adjacent to Geaghan’s Restaurant and Pub — the proposed site for a Bangor dog park.

Timothy Hebert, the project resident from the Maine Department of Transportation, said motorists should expect temporary day-to-day lane closures as crews wrap up the final bits of work in the last month of the project.

Hebert said drivers have been patient with the lane shifts, closures, potholes and sharp turns to make exits.

“Through the total amount of the project, I might have gotten five complaints,” he said.

Accidents have been few and far between, he said. The DOT did not have accident numbers immediately available, but there have been “a few fender benders” in the area and one serious accident.

The July 5 crash occurred when a silver Toyota Tacoma pickup and a Jeep collided on the eastbound side of the interstate, flipping the truck onto its roof on the offramp to South Main Street in Brewer and sending the Jeep into a ditch.

That crash seriously injured Pauline Guimond, 57, of Turner, who was a passenger in the truck driven by her husband.